


natural order

by shizuoh



Series: love is brightest in the dark (a:tla au) [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, AtLA AU, Bonding, Child Hinata Shouyou, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, learning about genocide lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:47:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25267852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shizuoh/pseuds/shizuoh
Summary: “The Avatar who stopped the war died not that long after doing it, so now everyone’s been sitting around figuring out who’s going to try and clean up their mess next.”The kid blinks slowly. “And… that’s me?”“I guess so.”His nose wrinkles. “I don’t like cleaning. The elders make me clean my room every week…”(or: hinata shouyou is the avatar. koutarou isn't equipped to deal with this.)
Relationships: Bokuto Koutarou & Hinata Shouyou
Series: love is brightest in the dark (a:tla au) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830580
Comments: 16
Kudos: 127





	natural order

**Author's Note:**

> this is part one of a very elaborate a:tla au in the making. it'll be posted as separate works all under a series, as that'll be easier for me compared to trying to put everything together in a multi-chaptered work. 
> 
> for now, all you need to know is that shouyou (who is around six or seven in this) is the avatar, and bokuto (who is about twelve/thirteen) is an airbender.
> 
> (title also subject to change cuz i don't really vibe with it)

The term _Avatar_ strikes fear into Koutarou’s heart like nothing else. He can barely control his airbending, and there is a chosen one person who can bend _all_ four elements every generation. It terrifies him even more to know that the Avatar is currently residing in his temple to begin his training, especially since he’s never seen him in person. He imagines someone tall, strong, intimidating — with a strong sense of justice and an even stronger sense of knowledge. The elders of the temple are barely elders at all, and he’s going strong at a mere twelve years old, so the thought of someone much older wandering the halls intimidates him.

He forgets that the Avatar is really and truly just a _child_ — at least, until he swings open the door to the library and finds said child crying silently over a book that looks almost as big as his body. The kid doesn’t even turn to look at him once he picks up on the sound; he just reaches up to wipe at his eyes some more and sniffles loudly.

Koutarou stands there, hovering. He shifts his weight from side to side. Anxiously drills his fingertips against the wood of the doorway. He opens his mouth once to say something, but then shuts it with an audible snap.

The kid is still crying, one of his tiny hands clenching into the fabric of robes that look far too big on him. He’s incredibly small — small for what Koutarou remembers his age to be — and incredibly vulnerable for someone supposed to master all four elements. The book cradled in his lap looks far too thick to be read by anyone his age, so for a moment Koutarou thinks he’s crying because he’s struggling to understand what’s on the page. 

Curiosity getting the better of him (and maybe even worry), he pushes himself out of the doorway and steps quietly towards the kid. He’s learned how to make his steps quieter recently, even though it has come with some struggle; despite this, the kid seems to notice the moment he comes closer. His body tenses and his whimpers halt.

“Hey, kid,” Koutarou says unsurely, and squats down. When he’s sure that the other isn’t going to sprint away, he carefully reaches out and pulls up the cover of the book, scanning his eyes across the title. “A history book?” he questions aloud. “I think this might be a little too much for you.”

The kid wipes at his eyes again and then tries drying off his damp palms on his pants. It does nothing but leave a dark stain in the shape of a smear. Looking closer, Koutarou can see places on the pages of the book where his tears have leaked and soaked through. Like he’s been crying for a while.

Frowning, he shifts so he’s sitting cross-legged beside him. “What’s got you so worked up?”

The kid traces his fingers across the words on the page, his dirty nails catching at some of the worn-out, smudged corners. After a few, long moments of his shaky breathing, he says, “I didn’t know…”

His voice is so soft it breaks Koutarou’s heart. “You didn’t know what?” he asks.

“About the airbenders…” The kid’s voice is wobbly and his words slur together with exhaustion. “I didn’t know.”

“Hey, calm down,” Koutarou says, even though he knows saying something like that won’t help. He scoots in closer, and hesitantly reaches out to put his hand on the kid’s back. He can feel his body shaking even just from his light touch. “C’mon. Tell me. What didn’t you know?”

The kid doesn’t answer for a while, and Koutarou thinks he’s never going to. That is, until the other shifts a little, tightens his grip on his book, and pointedly stares down at words a child his age couldn’t possibly understand. Most of his bright orange hair conceals his face but from what Koutarou can see, his expression is twisted into something so intense he barely looks like a child anymore.

“I didn’t know why they kept calling me special,” he says, the softness before torn away completely. “They keep me locked up. I don’t like how small this place is. I want to go home. I wanted…” His voice trails off. His gaze shifts across the paper, and then he lifts his head to look into Koutarou’s eyes, and for the first time Koutarou sees who the Avatar _really_ is. “I didn’t know they killed us all.”

Koutarou looks down at the book and sees the words Fire Nation and genocide written all over the pages. It isn’t something that a child should have to read. After a beat, he reaches out and steals the book from the kid’s lap, and snaps it shut despite his protests.

“They didn’t kill us all,” he says, swallowing. “If they did, you and me wouldn’t be sitting here, would we?”

The kid seems to contemplate this for a few moments. Then, “Is that why there are so many empty rooms here?”

“The elders let you go into those empty rooms?”

“No,” the kid says pointedly. 

Koutarou resists the urge to laugh at his honesty. Rather, he looks down at the cover of the book and lets out a sigh. “Pretty much everyone knows about the war no matter how old they are,” he says. “It was an awful thing. Lasted for one hundred years.”

“That’s a lot,” says the kid, with all the innocence he can muster. “A lot of years,” he corrects after a beat.

“It is,” Koutarou agrees. “Too many. It lasted so long because the Fire Nation had such a big advantage at the beginning. Threw off the balance. Battled with hate and pain.” 

“But it ended, right?” the kid asks.

“Well…” Koutarou chews on the inside of his cheek, and thinks of the teachings from the other elders of the temples. “Yeah. But it’s still fresh in everyone’s minds 'cause it only ended about a decade ago.”

“What’s a decade?”

“Ten years.”

“That’s a long time too…”

“Not compared to one hundred years,” Koutarou argues, and holds back a grin at the kid’s amazed look. He’s ecstatic to see the tears on his face drying, but keeps his expression neutral. “The Avatar who stopped the war died not that long after doing it, so now everyone’s been sitting around figuring out who’s going to try and clean up their mess next.”

The kid blinks slowly. “And… that’s me?”

“I guess so.”

His nose wrinkles. “I don’t like cleaning. The elders make me clean my room every week…”

“You make that much of a mess?”

The kid’s ears redden and he doesn’t say anything to that. He pulls his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms around his legs to pull them closer. The fabric on his pants is dirtied and scuffed. 

Koutarou lets out a dramatic sigh and props his chin up with his fist. “So you were upset ‘cause you read about what happened to the airbenders?”

The other has the nerve to look a little embarrassed. He blinks the wetness from his eyes several times. “It wasn’t fair.”

“It wasn’t,” agrees Koutarou.

The kid makes a tiny, distressed sound in the back of his throat. “I don’t think I want to be the Avatar,” he admits quietly, voice small, like he’s saying something he knows he shouldn’t be. “I’m not strong enough to help everyone… and all this training makes my body hurt. Too many words.” He tightens his arms and his shoulders tense. “I want to go back to the city.”

Koutarou isn’t sure what to say to soothe his worries. For a moment he forgets he’s talking to the Avatar, to the future master of all elements. Right now he’s talking to a scared child — one who is only half his age. He wonders if he looked just as scared when his training first started, when his airbending started to manifest in his everyday life. 

(Going from a kid in the city to a kid in the clouds… he couldn’t even begin to imagine.)

“I think you’re a long way from home,” he says regretfully, and then reaches out to push the kid’s bangs back up from his eyes. “Hey. What’s your name?”

A sniffle. “Shouyou.”

“I’m Koutarou,” he says, and lets himself smile. “What do you say we get out of this dreary library and play some airball around the temple grounds for a bit?”

Shouyou instantly brightens at that, his eyes gleaming with a fierce curiosity. “ _Airball?_ ” he repeats. “What is that?”

“It’s a secret,” Koutarou stage-whispers, putting a finger to his lips. “But, I do have an exception. Only super-super- _super_ cool kids can be let in on it.” He makes his face serious. “Do you think you’re a super-super-super cool kid?”

Shouyou airbends himself to his feet so quickly he nearly falls over from the force of the wind. “Yes!” he shouts, then covers his mouth with wide eyes when his voice echoes across the room. “Yes,” he then whispers, glancing around for any sign of other people.

Koutarou laughs, jumping to his feet. He takes the old book and shoves it into the back shelf where it belongs, away from the prying and indulgent eyes of six-year old Avatars.

“Then we gotta sneak out. I know a secret path that even the elders don’t know about.” This is a lie, but in Koutarou’s experience, kids love being let in on things they believe to be hidden knowledge.

It works like a charm. Shouyou jumps in excitement and follows him out of the library, all traces of his sadness disappearing like a clean slate. There is no way for Koutarou to lift up the responsibility off his shoulders, and there is no way for him to erase history or erase his destiny.

He thinks — he _hopes_ — that if he tries hard enough, he can make being the Avatar a little more bearable. 

**Author's Note:**

> expect more cuz this shit's gonna be a LOT...
> 
> [my blog](http://haikuyus.tumblr.com/)


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